52 Week Mini Art Card / Tag Challenge 2025 - Week 36

The Crafting Niche 52 Week Mini Art Card/Tag Challenge 2025:

This is a weekly challenge. I provide you with a prompt/theme each Sunday morning through out the year.  The challenge is very relaxed.  You can do as much or as little as you like.  You can create cards, tags, Artist Trading Cards (ATC's) or index cards, the choice is yours. You just go with what ever is in your head at the time.  You can stamp, get inky, use patterned papers, texture, embellish it is all down to you.

There is a dedicated private Facebook Group, with a lovely bunch of people who are already sharing their makes from previous challenges.  You can find the group by clicking this link.  I'd love you to join in.

The prompt for Week 36 "Book Print"

I have about five old books that I often tear pages out of to use in my crafting.  One is just normal text, two are hymn books with words and the music notes, one an old dictionary and the other is an accountancy book (lots of text and balance sheets).  These provide me with a good choice.

I used Lavinia "Elements Inks" to colour my book page.  The colours I used are: Lemon Drop, Russet Orange, Green Parrot, Blue Atoll and Pine inks.  I then stuck the page on to a plain tag, trimming to size. 

Once the ink was dry, I added some splatters of white Posca Pen across the surface of the tag.

On a white piece of card, using Versafine Clair "Nocturne" black ink, I stamped the two heads, which are part of a Visible Image stamp set called "Love is Love".  I then fussy cut the heads and stuck on to the tag, again trimming to size.

After mounting the tag on to a piece of black card, I added a word sticker from my stash that says ""listen to your heart, it will show you the way".

Engagement Card (inspired by Manja Nelan)

We received some wonderful news a few days back, that our younger son and his girl are now engaged.  We are absolutely thrillled for them.

I am really not in crafting mode at the moment, due to packing up for a house move.  My crafting mojo seems to have been replaced by all things moving!  So I was really struggling with ideas for a card to make.

I remembered seeing a card on the Lavinia Stamps facebook group that I thought was very clever, so I searched for it and found the one I was looking for, it was by Manja Nelan from 2021, so I decided to give it a go.  The card above is inspired by Manja's card.

Using Versafine Clair "Nocturne" black ink, I stamped the two Lavinia Stamps trees, they're called "Tree of courage" and "Tree of hope".

I then found my Visible Image "Love is love" stamp set, with two profiles.  I stamped them on to a piece of card and then fussy cut the face profiles. I used a pencil to lightly draw around the profiles on the edge of each tree.  I then used the central area between the stamped face image as a stencil, colouring and blending the face with "Fern Green" Ranger Archival Ink.  I've shown a photo of what I mean.

I used the same ink with a blending brush and a Lavinia Stamps "Hill Mask" to create the land that the trees are based on.

Next, I used a fine liner black pen to add extra branches to fill in the empty areas of the faces. I  then used a brown Derwent Inktense pencil with a paint brush to colour the tree trunk and some of the thicker branches. I added gold coloured dots within the tree branches too.

Finally, using Versafine Clair "Nocturne" black ink I stamped the word "love" between the foreheads, using part of one of the "Heartfelt Verse" sentiment stamps from Lavinia Stamps.  I used the same ink to stamp the word "Congratulations" which is part of a Clarity Stamps stamp set called "Entwined Sentiments".  I mounted the card on to a piece of dark green card and then on to a 8x8" card blank.

Visible Image "Love Is Love" tag

While I had lots of my Distress Oxide Inks out to create Tag 20, I decided to make a wash of colours across a tag.  

First I dampened the surface of the tag with a good spritz of water.  Using a wet paint brush I dragged the brush across the surface, moving on to the next colour and so on, till the colours merged and blended into each other like a water colour effect. 

I used the following Distress Oxide Inks:  Cracked Pistachio, Tumbled Glass, Weathered Wood, Shaded Lilac, Picked Raspberry and Wilted Violet.  I then gave the tag a blast with the heat gun to dry off the surface.

Using Versafine Clair "Twilight" dark blue ink, I stamped the right hand side face of the Visible Image "Love is Love" stamp set.

Using the same ink, I stamped the sentiment, which is also a Visible Image stamp from their stamp set called "Equality, Hope and Love". I also used the same ink to edge the tag.

I felt the tag needed something else, so using the Visible Image "Two Tone" stencil and a white Posca Pen, I added some spots to the background.

I then used different coloured Posca Pens to add interest to the stamped image.

Visible Image "Love is Love" Anniversary Card

For the past month or so, I have taken a total break from any form of paper crafting.  I felt I needed it to recharge my batteries.  Instead I have picked up an unfinished quilt project and have been enjoying working on that.  We've also managed to get away in the camper van and the caravan too, which has been lovely.

Yesterday I realised I have a few occasions coming up where I need to make cards, so started with this one, using a background I had in my stash, I think it was partial spray ink and also some mopping up colour from my glass mat.

I used the Visible Image "Love is love" stamp set for the two heads, stamped in Versafine Clair "Purple Delight".  Inside the card I have used the Visible Image "Happy Anniversary" stamp for the sentiment.

This is the sewing project I'm working on at the moment.